Here’s why Apple really needs its exclusive TV content to work

iTunes is flagging on the video front

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While Apple has original TV shows on the boil, all we’ve been hearing in recent times is that the company has limited ambitions in this respect, and indeed is unsure of its own strategy. However, the firm might need to push harder on this front, looking at new stats which show that iTunes video content is flagging (as is also the case with music).

According to the Wall Street Journal, insiders with knowledge of the market share for the rental and sale of movies have observed Apple’s share fall from over 50% back in 2012, to around 20% to 35% right now.

Note that these are estimates and unofficial statistics – because no organization shares any cast-iron figures – but obviously they still represent a worrying lurch downwards for Tim Cook’s outfit.

The WSJ further notes that several Hollywood studios have observed a ‘marked decline’ in the success of iTunes when it comes to the amount of business they’re doing with Apple.

Apple assertions

An Apple spokeswoman, while not arguing with the above stats, did assert that film rentals and purchases on iTunes have increased over the past year, and indeed hit their highest levels in a decade – but the report puts this down to the overall increase across the whole digital movie industry, which is growing fast (by 12% last year, according to PwC).

It’s easy to see, then, that there is a strong argument for Apple to at least solidify, or perhaps expand the scope of its ambitions with exclusive TV programming, to help reverse the current course of its overall video fortunes.

In short, the company needs to bring to hand whatever weapons it can get to fight the likes of rising stars such as Amazon Prime, which is busy forging ahead in the current market, snaffling share from Apple.

And quality exclusive content could be a powerful sword for Apple to wield – you only have to look at the success of the likes of ‘The Man in the High Castle’.